Posted on 06/23/2019 8:26:57 PM PDT by jocon307
It may be that the best book that will ever be written about today’s progressive mind-set was published in 1941. That in The Red Decade author Eugene Lyons was, in fact, describing the Communist-dominated American Left of the Depression-wracked 1930s and 1940s makes his observations even more meaningful, for it is sobering to be confronted with how little has been gained by hard experience. The celebration of feelings over reason? The certainty of moral virtue? The disdain for tradition and the revising of history for ideological ends? The embrace of the latest definition of correct thought? Lyons was one of the most gifted reporters of his time, and among the bravest, and his story of the spell cast by Stalinist-tinged social-justice activism over that day’s purported best and brightest—literary titans, Hollywood celebrities, leading academics, religious leaders, media heavies—would be jaw-dropping if it weren’t so eerily familiar.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
bump for later
Thanks for posting.
Thanks jocon307.
Many thanks for posting this!
A great article.
It exposes some American history that has been well buried.
Well worth reading.
Like!
*good article ping*
(and the red doesn’t mean “Republican”, either)
There is a tendency for some Boomers, and I plead guilty, to consider the advent of popular communism to have been in the anti-war movement of the late 60's and early 70's, but in fact that was really merely an extension of a long-standing movement that had gone to ground in the "paranoid" 50's and broke out again in an orgy of stylishness illustrated by such acid pens as Tom Wolfe's. That stylishness faded for a time after the fall of the Soviet Union, resurfacing now that memories of that watershed event have begun to fade. The real luminaries of the respective times are those who bucked the current: Orwell, Chambers, Buckley, Horowitz, and a host of others now disparaged if they are remembered at all. I'm adding Eugene Lyons to that list.
Paul Robeson
To You Beloved Comrade
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/biographies/1953/04/x01.htm
‘...In a box to the right—smiling and applauding the audience—as well as the artists on the stage—stood the great Stalin.
I remember the tears began to quietly flow and I too smiled and waved. Here was clearly a man who seemed to embrace all. So kindly—I can never forget that warm feeling of kindliness and also a feeling of sureness. Here was one who was wise and good—the world and especially the socialist world was fortunate indeed to have his daily guidance. I lifted high my son Paul to wave to this world leader, and his leader. For Paul, Jr. had entered school in Moscow, in the land of the Soviets...’
For reading later and thank you for posting.
All the useful idiot FReepers screaming "VOTE RED!!!" in the last election cycle certainly got a "red" Congress as a reward for their efforts. Thanks for nothing, guys!
(And I find it interesting that the same conservatives who cry 'we can't let the media define things for us!' are the ones who HAPPILY use the Orwellian new definition of "red")
That has bugged me since the 2000 election when the press did the color swap.
“I’m adding Eugene Lyons to that list.”
Yes, me too. I had never heard of him before.
What I do remember is after the Berlin wall fell all the MSM were suddenly filled with “communism bad” stories. But of course, that didn’t last. They really are a craven lot.
ping
Lyons. A great American
I have long believed that the rot of America was started by the Commies. Lyons’ book appears to show when and how this happened.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.